ABSTRACT

In Unlikely Couples, Thomas E. Wartenberg directly challenges the view that narrative cinema inherently supports the dominant social interests by examining the way popular films about "unlikely couples" (a mismatched romantic union viewed as inappropriate due to its class, racial, or gender composition) explore, expose, and criticize societal attit

part One|89 pages

Class

chapter 2|26 pages

Pygmalion

The Flower Girl and the Bachelor

chapter 3|20 pages

It Happened One Night

An Education in Humility

chapter 4|22 pages

Pretty Woman

A Fairy Tale of Oedipalized Capitalism

chapter 5|19 pages

White Palace

Dustbuster Epiphanies

part Two|81 pages

Race

chapter 6|20 pages

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Does Father Really Know Best?

chapter 7|22 pages

Jungle Fever

Souring on Forbidden Fruit

chapter 8|20 pages

Mississippi Masala

Love in a Postcolonial World

chapter 9|17 pages

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

The Privileges of “Race”

part Three|52 pages

Sexual Orientation

chapter 10|15 pages

Desert Hearts

Betting on Lesbian Love

chapter 11|22 pages

The Crying Game

Loving in Ignorance

chapter 12|12 pages

Movie Romance and the Critique of Hierarchy